There will be no drilling for oil or gas anywhere off the 2,069 miles of the U.S. Atlantic coastline, President Barack Obama has decreed.

In one fell swoop, Obama has closed a major avenue Americans might have followed toward energy independence. He did it to protect the environment, he insists.

But the same offshore drilling plan in which the president closed the Atlantic permits wells in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast. By Obama’s own reasoning, then, he does not believe Gulf Coast or Alaska residents deserve to have their environments protected.

Once again, Obama is playing to his environmentalist base.

This involves politics, not pollution.

It would be nice to assume that within a year, with a new president, Obama’s economy-killing policies will be reversed. Any one of the three Republican contenders for president could be counted upon to do that. The two Democratic contenders seem committed to continuing Obama’s policies.